A Child’s Senseless Death

I would encourage everyone to look to themselves, their children. Not just for victims who need help, but for bullies who need to get the message that they must stop.

Yes, doting parents. Your child, too, could be a bully.

That sweet little 8-year-old with chubby cheeks and freckles might be the tyrant of her class, the empress of the playground, deciding who gets to sit alone at lunch for the rest of the year and holding other children’s lives in the palm of her bangled hand. Your child could be a victim, yes, but he or she could also be a bully, and a lot of bullies leave no visible marks.

And no victim deserves it. Not ever. Not if they have glasses, not if they’re gay, not if they joined the chess club or play the trombone or like Shakespeare or have a disability or a speech impediment or a snorting laugh or red hair or the wrong outfit or a Star Trek lunch box.